Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch (30 September 1747 – 3 April 1822) was a German publisher and patron of the arts. He co-founded the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776. He was the father of the writer and journalist Karl Bertuch.
Élisabeth Badinter (née Bleustein-Blanchet; born 5 March 1944) is a French philosopher, author and historian.
She is best known for her philosophical treatises on feminism and women's role in society. She is an advocate of liberal feminism and women migrant workers' rights in France. Badinter is described as having a commitment to Enlightenment rationalism and universalism. She advocates for a "moderate feminism". A 2010 Marianne news magazine poll named her France's "most influential intellectual", primarily on the basis of her books on women's rights and motherhood.Badinter is the largest shareholder of Publicis Groupe, a multinational advertising and public relations company, and the chairwoman of its supervisory board. She received these shares in an inheritance from her father, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, who founded the company. According to Forbes, she is one of the wealthiest French citizens with a fortune of around US$ 1.8 billion in 2012.
Vittorio Merloni (30 April 1933 – 18 June 2016) was an Italian entrepreneur and industrialist. He was the honorary chairman of Indesit (chaired by his son Andrea Merloni) and Fineldo (chaired by his daughter Antonella), the family holding company that controls Indesit and other group interests.
Louis Ducatel (13 March 1902 – 28 June 1999) was a French politician and businessman from the Pas-de-Calais. He is best known for his candidacy in the 1969 French presidential election, where he obtained 1.27% of the vote.
Battista "Pinin" Farina (later Battista Pininfarina; 2 November 1893 – 3 April 1966) was an Italian automobile designer and the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company, a name associated with many well known postwar cars.
Jean Prouvost (24 April 1885, Roubaix – 18 October 1978, Yvoy-le-Marron) was a businessman, media owner and French politician. Prouvost was best known for building and owning the publications that became France-Soir, Paris Match, and Télé 7 Jours.
Juan Alberto March Ordinas (4 October 1880 – 10 March 1962) was a Spanish business magnate, arms and tobacco smuggler, banker and philanthropist.
Closely associated with the Nationalist side during and after the Spanish Civil War, March was the wealthiest man in Spain and the sixth richest in the world. Throughout his life, he accumulated labels such as "the Rockefeller of Spain" or "the last pirate of the Mediterranean". At his death in 1961, Time called him "the Iberian Croesus".Born into a humble family of peasants in Mallorca, he was expelled from school at an early age and began helping his father with his pig farming business while smuggling tobacco from Spanish Morocco. During the Mediterranean Theatre of World War I, March was involved in an international affair after he gave supplies to a fleet of submarines of the Austria-Hungary in his island of Cabrera. This action cost him the expropriation of the island by the Government of Spain acting on behalf of Winston Churchill, at the time First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1916, he founded Trasmediterránea, an important shipping company that strengthened March's naval outreach. He gained political protection from Primo de Rivera and established Banca March to finance part of his business ventures, including Franco's coup d'état and most of the Nationalist effort. For a short period of the Second Spanish Republic, he was jailed due to financial irregularities and illegal activities, including tobacco and arms trafficking. He managed to escape prison by bribing a Civil Guard and fleeing to Gibraltar.In 1955, he set up his eponymous foundation of philanthropy and sciences, similar to the Rockefeller or Carnegie foundations. Around the same time, an elderly March uttered his famous "I am so rich, that I do not even know how rich I am". He died in March 1961 from sustained injuries caused by a road accident in Madrid.
The March family under his patriarchy had a strong influence in the financial, social and cultural aspects of European affairs in the 20th century, and it played an almost equally important role as the Rothschild family. Today, the Marches are among the richest in Spain, reported to be worth over US$5 billion.